Annual up to 22 cm tall. Leaves basal, 1.5-6.0 cm long, 6-16 mm broad, spathulate to oblanceolate, glabrous, attenuate. Flowers in dichasial cymes; scapes slender, glabrous; involucral bracts ovate-oblong, 1-2 mm long, scarious; pedicels up to 1.4 cm long. Sepals oblong, 2.5-3.0 mm long, mucronate, imbricate persistent. Filaments c. 1 mm long, persistent, anthers less than 1 mm long, sub-globose. Ovary sub-globose, 1.5 mm long. Stigmas 3, short, curved. Capsule as long as the sepals, sub-globose, dehiscing by 3 valves. Seeds less than 1 mm, muricate, minutely strophiolate, black and shiny.

Fl. Per.: October-November.

Type: Based on a Burmann illustration, Thesaurus zeylanicus, (t.8,f.2.) and a specimen from Mauritius, Commerson (Herb. Thouin).

Distribution: S. America, tropical Africa, Ceylon, India and W. Pakistan.

A summer annual found up to 1500 m. alt. s.m.